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AAdianthum - Award Recipient - Monday at 5:36 PM #994
Here's the start of the bit.
Taylor's fathersmashedinto the battlefield like an angry god. He ripped through the flank, grabbing tanks and hurling them into the sky, where they exploded like fireworks.
Another swung at him, and he knocked the alien right into a building. And as the last of the Flaxans retreated, the portals swirled shut, one, then another.
The last portal began to close, and Omni-Manshottowards it. Taylor had a split-second to react, and chose to use it by throwing herself in after him.
The portal roared around her like a living being—a thing of searing heat, twisting light, and a gravity that threatened to tear her flesh from her bones. And then she was through.
An alien city-scape stretched out before her, reaching spires against a crimson backdrop. The air reeked of plasma and blood already.
Below her was a scene of carnage. Nolan was already at work, diving through the remnants of the assault force like a missile and ripping a command skiff in half with his bare hands, tossing the broken halves onto two nearby gun platforms. They detonated in tandem. raining debris across the city.
A hailstorm of plasma bolts screamed toward him. He vanished—then reappeared inside the firing squad, grabbed two soldiers by their helmets, andsmashedthem together with a wet, cracking boom.
A third tried to run. Nolan grabbed his spine,rippedit out, and used it to beat another soldier to death.
Limbs splattered against the black stone. More troops surged toward him in desperation even as their officers screamed orders in harsh, chittering Flaxan speech.
Every blow obliterated something. Heads crushed into paste. Ribcagescaved. One unlucky soldier caught a midair kick so fast it split him in half, his top half tumbling end over end like a thrown ragdoll.
Taylor hovered above, her heart hammering, breath caught somewhere between awe and horror. She dropped down beside him, boots crunching into a pile of shattered armour and entrails.
Nolan turned. Blood covered his arms up to the elbows, viscera dripping from his beard. His eyes widened when he saw her. "Taylor?!"
She straightened, tense, breath fogging in the cold Flaxan air. "You justleft, Dad," she said, jaw tight. "You didn't say anything."
"You shouldn't have followed me." he growled, turning back to swat a screaming soldier aside like a fly.
Taylor flew forward as Nolan pulped another alien between his fingers. "Whatelsewas I supposed to do? Stand by while you—"
"This isn't Earth," Nolan cut her off, voice like thunder. "This isn't just abattle, Taylor. And you're notreadyfor something like this yet."
She bristled. "You don't think I can handle this?"
"That's not what I'm talking about." he snapped, eyes hard. He motioned around them, at the weapons being pointed at them, the Flaxans already mobilising at the city's far edge, at the vehicles and tanks setting off in columns.
"This is theirhome,Taylor. Theirplanet.You don't know what they'll do to protect it." He clenched his fists. "You don't know whatI'lldo to stop them."
Taylor stared at him. The weight of his words dropped like a boulder in her chest. "...What do you mean?" she asked, quietly.
Nolan's eyes didn't waver. "I mean I'm going to end this. Permanently." He turned toward the skyline, where warships were rising like stormclouds from armoured silos. "This planet has hadeverychance to back down. And Earth can't afford to keep playing defence."
Taylor's throat tightened. "So you're going tokill them all?"
"I'm going to make sure theycan't ever come back." His voice was calm now—cold and final. "You've seen what they did to Earth. What they'll keep doing. You know how much more dangerous they've become. You saw them nearly kill the Teen Team. Nearly killyou."
"I held my own—"
"Theyadapt.They come back stronger every time. Look at what they did in the span of aweek.One day they won't just be a nuisance, they'll come through and startconquering.Earth isn't ready for that. But I am. You threatened to do the same yourself. I'm justactingon it."
The silence between them burned hotter than any plasma fire. Taylor wanted to scream at him. Wanted to punch him, stop him,something. But the images came back. Rex insensate. Eve crumpled with a drone in her back. Those white-and-gold behemoths nearlysnapping her spine.
They were monsters. But they were also just… people. Fighting for their home. Just like her.
She ground her teeth. "This… this isn't justice. It'sgenocide."
"It's anecessity." Nolan's voice was low. "How many more times do we let them come? How many lives do we risk to feel like theheroes?Be realistic, Taylor. They're conquerors. They'll stop atnothingto get what they want."
She shook her head slowly. "They'repeople.You can't just decide an entire species doesn't get to exist."
"Theydecidedthat when they brought war to our doorstep. Again. And again. And again."
Taylor turned away, jaw clenched, bile rising in her throat. Her mind flashed with images—the dead civilians, the broken city. But then—faces. The ones down there. Alien, yes. But more than that. They were soldiers, citizens, defending their homes. Fleeing. Crying out.
She could barely breathe. "I didn't come here to help youslaughterpeople," she whispered.
"You came here because youcare," Nolan said. "This is how we protect Earth. Not by standing on principles until they're burned down around us."
She didn't answer. Just stared at the ground, fists clenched so tight they shook. This wasn't justice. It wasn't even vengeance at this point. It was annihilation. And if she helped him… there was no undoing that.
"I can't—" Her voice cracked. "Ican'thelp you do this."
But the thought of another invasion...Kate's broken bodies. Robot's blank stare. And Nolan's voice, steady, persuasive, tugging at her guilt: They'll just keep coming. Taylor turned, looking out over the sprawl of alien towers and glowing highways. Her fists clenched, blood from earlier still wet between her fingers.
She shot away. Faster than sound, faster than thought, fleeing the battlefield like a bullet from a gun, hoping, foolishly—that if she moved fast enough, far enough, that she wouldn't need to make another decision like that again, that she could leave it behind in the dust. It didn't work.
She hovered alone above the red-tinged clouds, a dark silhouette against a burning sky, hands trembling.I've been here before. Not literally. She'd never been to the Flaxan dimension. And certainly not this exact situation. But this decision.
She closed her eyes, andsaw itagain—wriggling underneath the surface of her thoughts. The decision she'd made to become Khepri. To take control ofeveryone—hero, villain, rogue—and turn them into an army.Herarmy. The one that stopped Scion. The one that saved the world. And the one that cost her everything.
"I didn't want to be a monster," she whispered, voice snatched away by the thin air. "Not again."
But was she already too close? She'd followed Nolan through the portal. She'dcome here. Because she knew—on some deep, ugly level—that she might have to make that choice again. And she hated that part of herself. The part that saw the logic in it. Thatunderstoodwhat Nolan was doing. Not because it wasright, but because it mightwork.
It had takeneverythingin her to make the choice to become Khepri. Everything she was. And then, when it was done—when she'd dragged the world back from the brink—what was left of her hadn't even been offered forgiveness. Justfear.Rejection. From the world, fromherself. And to end it all off, she'd been given a bullet to the skull.
She'd made herself into a god to stop theend of the world,and still,still, people had only seen the monster.
Would this be any different? Maybe.Because no one would know. No one wouldsee. They were in another dimension. No one else wouldeverbe able to know if they didn't want them to. Her stomach turned.
But the part of her that once marshalled insects by the millions… that partunderstoodthe brutal calculus of it all. It didn't care about morality, only paths and their outcomes. And the outcome of doing nothing… was another invasion. Another war. More broken bodies in her arms. More blood onsomeone'shands.
She bit her lip until she tasted copper. Was it really better tolet themkeep coming? To cling to the moral high ground while cities burned, hoping—praying—the next attack wasn't worse?
She wanted to scream. Totearherself in half and throw both pieces into opposite stars. The wind howled, this high up. Taylor could almost feel it scraping at her like grasping claws. She hadn't moved in what felt like hours.
A distant boom echoed from behind her, a gale force wind blowing around her. She didn't turn. She knew who it was.
Nolan hovered a few dozen meters away, arms folded behind his back. His silhouette was calm, composed. His eyes were locked onto her, patience within their depths.
Nolan floated closer, slowly. Like he was approaching a wounded animal. "I'm not going to pretend that what you saw down there was… pleasant," he said. "You weren't supposed to see that yet. I was going to ease you into this."
Taylor's voice cracked out, dry and sharp. "Ease me intowhat, exactly?"
His expression didn't change. "Thetruth."
A long silence passed between them, stretched thin, a pulled thread.
He drifted beside her, gaze sweeping the untouched city. "I know this must look… monstrous," Nolan admitted, eyes fixed on the horizon. "But you're not seeing the full picture. You're seeing a wound being cauterized, and ithurtsto watch. But that pain—it's the beginning ofhealing."
She turned toward him, fists clenched. "This isn't healing. It'sslaughter."
Nolan turned to face her directly now, his expression finally shifting—ever so slightly. Not softer. But… focused. Tired. "It's prevention."
"I've seen thousands of worlds fall," he continued, quietly. "I've watched peaceful civilisations turn to ash because people waited too long to act. Because theyhesitatedwhen the time for a choice came. Conquer or be conquered, Taylor."
She clenched her teeth. "That'swrong."
"That'sreality,"he corrected. "You're still thinking like a human. We live long,longlives, Taylor. We have to learn to look at the big picture, or we'll be stuck down there withthem, slowly going mad from all the things we couldn't change, dealing with all the consequences of our inaction. When millions,billionsof lives are on the line, and our opponents are the race of alien conquerors,preventionis our only option."
He floated to her side, placing a comforting palm on her shoulder. Her father opened his mouth as if to continue, but stopped, grimacing.
Taylor's breath caught. A part of her wanted to scream again—to push him away, to reject every word. But another part, deep and ugly, whispered:Isn't that what you did too?
Not because shewantedto. Shehadto. For the greater good.
Her hands dropped to her sides, limp. "…What if wedon'tkill everyone?" she said slowly. "What if we just make itclearthat they can't do this anymore? Cripple their war effort. Wipe out their command structure. Flatten their factories. Leave the rest too terrified to ever come back."
Nolan turned to her, something sparking in his eyes.
"They won't forget this," she said. "They'llremember.And that's better than leaving a scorched wasteland. We make themafraid.Not extinct."
Nolan was quiet for a long moment. Then—he smiled. A slow, proud, dangerous thing. "You're starting to understand," he said, smile gracing his features. "How about you take charge this time, Taylor?"
Taylor swallowed. "We do itright.No wasted time. No collateral damage. We go for the infrastructure. Leadership. Supply lines. Cut their throat, not their limbs."
Nolan nodded. "Then that's what we'll do."
Taylor inhaled sharply and floated a little higher, surveying the city again. Her heart felt like a stone in her chest. But she focused, pointing to the looming warships on the horizon. "Hit their airfields first. Cut the sky out of their defence grid. Then whatever they use to make their portals. They've been preparing to raid Earth foryears.There'll be data caches. Coordinates. Tech. If we take that—"
"We shut them down forever," Nolan finished.
Taylor nodded, quietly. "For the greater good."
Nolan placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm proud of you."
She didn't say anything as she flew ahead. And began theendof the Flaxan threat.
AN:QQ scares me. The comment section for the last chapter was mostly just filled with people wholeheartedly advocating for the Flaxan genocide. There was one(1) person against it in the entire thread.
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